Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Everything is connected

The NHS has traditionally depended on overseas doctors to help keep the health service running. The most recent figures show that almost 128,000 of the 277,000 doctors on the GMC register have been trained abroad.

Of these 1,985 are from Iraq and 184 from Jordan.

The skills gap has meant that, with the exception of consultants, doctors did not require a work permit until last year.

Ministers changed this only as the expansion in medical school places several years ago led to a boom in UK-trained doctors.

The latest crisis has come about because there were only 22,000 jobs for 30,000 junior doctors. The glut in applicants was caused by the introduction of a system where those who started training two years ago are competing for the same jobs as those who began three or four years ago....the British Medical Association condemned the [NHS] system. Dr Faith Harries, a junior doctor, who has been offered no interview said: "I came out of medical school with £42,000 debt. I thought I was guaranteed a job in training in the UK — because I thought I would be able to pay it back. Now I am thinking of going abroad."